This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Marysz - - January 8, 2012
Subject: "The're Alive!" But not if they keep on smoking.
Another Newport commercial with a fantasy sequence in which a middle-aged man is entranced by a younger, more attractive couple. In this case, it's pictures on a billboard who come to life. Unlike sleepy Harry in Newport Commercial #4, this man is a working-class guy who rides public transportation. He misses his bus and as he stands in frustration, a pretty girl on a billboard blows some second-hand smoke into his face. She's on the beach and her hunky boyfriend runs up to join them. The man gives the guy on the billboard a conspiratorial smirk and waves his fist. What's that about? The girl sings the "Newport tastes better" jingle until the bus comes. The man gets on the bus and tells the driver "It's alive!" But naturally, when the driver looks, the billboard has reverted to boring black and white. The driver shakes his head in disbelief. The ad ends with the man giving the couple a prim little wave as the bus pulls away. The couple on the billboard have allowed the man to enter a fantasy world that promises him youth, attractiveness, sexual ambiguity and a trip to the beach. Of course, what the couple was really offering was a death sentence from lung cancer or emphysema. In a larger sense, this ad also shows that at one time, American cities not only had jobs for working-class Americans, they also had reliable public transportation; the man didn't have to wait very long for the next bus. And he got a seat.

Reviewer: Seto-Kaiba_Is_Stupid - - August 24, 2009
Subject: Decent commercial
I have to correct a previous reviewer: At the time, the dangers of smoking had been known for at least a few years, and had been considered highly possible for some time (A lyric from a #1 smash hit from 1947 said "Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death/Tell St. Peter at the Pearly Gate/That you hate to make him wait/But you just gotta have another cigarette").

That said, this is a good commercial, and I'd like to see the concept come back, BUT for a completely different product (maybe Pepsi or M&Ms?).

Reviewer: ERD - - March 9, 2006
Subject: Entertaining
Nice little entertaining commercial- before the days we knew cigarettes were harmful.

Reviewer: AliceTeeple - - September 14, 2005
Subject: Menthol Goodness
Wow. If billboards started singing to me, I don't think I'd be on the next bus out of town. We know the man on the bus, but do we know the phantom cigarette singer and her beach bumpkin boyfriend?

Reviewer: Cocopugg - - January 14, 2005
Subject: Lively Newport Cigarette spot!
Very entertaining 1 minute Newport commercial. The colors of this print are superb, the catchy jingle will have you whistling, and the mpeg2 sharpness make this one a collector's MUST HAVE. If you think you've seen the guy who gets on the bus, you have. That's none other than George Costanza's boss on "Seinfeld", Mr. Wilhelm...character actor Richard Herd.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - December 7, 2003
Subject: Newport makes pleasure (snap..)
Great surreal commercial, I have no idea how it was done of a billboard with a model on the beach coming to life. The layering makes it look they shot this on a beach, maybe added a fake wall, or something! Great color too, which, for a cigarette commercial is pretty rare. A MUST SEE on this site!